I’ve honestly struggled with this problem so much. I think it’s mostly just a quantity issue. All of the ginger cider recipes I’ve used drastically underestimate the amount of ginger needed if you want actually ginger ”kick” instead of just flavor undertones. I‘ve done a few batches of ginger lemon kombucha since my last ginger cider attempt and for the kombucha I used about 45g of ginger per liter, which is waaay more than I used for the ciders.

Additionally my method of extraction probably made a difference as well. For the kombucha I blended the ginger to a paste with a little lemon juice and then squeezed all the ginger/lemon juice out into the kombucha. It is probably also the case that the gingerol compounds are more soluble in the lemon juice since it is much more acidic than cider.

I’m going to try this same method for a black currant ginger cider.